Zilvermeercross: Cant beats Verdonschot to victory

Sanne Cant returned to the top step of the podium after she took victory at the Lampiris Zilvermeercross in Mol, Belgium. The world champion out-sprinted Laura Verdonschot in a two-rider dash for the line with Inge van der Heijden rounding out the podium.

The win was the first for Cant in almost a month with her last victory coming at the Jaarmarktcross at the start of November. Illness has hampered Cant in recent weeks but she showed she was on her way back after returning to the podium at the GP Hasselt the previous day.

Ellen van Loy arrived in Mol on Sunday with high confidence after a strong performance to win the GP Hasselt on Saturday but she would have a disappointing day. Perhaps taking a leaf out of Van Loy’s book, Van der Heijden launched an early move to pull out a small gap on the pack. There was misfortune for Britain’s Charlotte Hayward and Canadian Maghalie Rochette, who suffered a mechanical and a crash respectively on the opening lap.

Further ahead cousins Cant and Loes Sels were working together with Verdonschot to chase down Van der Heijden. Kim Van de Steene and De Boer formed a second chasing group behind them. As the riders entered the second lap, the chase group fractured with Sels dropping back before Verdonschot opened up a small gap on Cant.

The sand pit proved to be the leveller between the three, and as Van der Heijden made her way through the uphill section her two chasers were close behind. It was only a matter of time before three became one. Van de Steene caught and passed Sels, but she struggled to close the gap to the trio up front.

Cant utilised a mistake from Verdonschot in the sand on the third lap to attack her companions. As she entered the final lap, Cant has a small five-second gap on Van der Heijden and Verdonschot but she would be brought back by the latter. Van der Heijden was unable to bridge back up and it would come down to a two-way sprint between Cant and Verdonschot with the world champion coming up trumps.

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